Risus Changes Hands

 

I stumbled across this information by accident but it floored me. S. John Ross, the creator of Risus: The Anything RPG has sold it to Dave LeCompte of Big Dice Games.

I did not see any announcements or discussions about it in the usual places and it seems to have happened rather quietly. This information came up during a conversation about how Kort'thalis Publishing has acquired the rights to Encounter Critical from S. John Ross.  

The first hyperlink is the press release from S. John Ross's blog dated 06/07/2021. It was put up for sale on 05/28/2021.

Regardless of the reasons for passing the torch (as there is not much outside of speculation), I do have high hopes for the future of Risus in the hands of Dave and Big Dice Games. Dave has been really responsive and the focus as laid out in the press release is going to be fulfilling the Kickstarter obligations that was funded in 2012. The last update on the KS page was in 2015. 

Outside of the kickstarter obligation (which is first and foremost), there are a few other points:

•  Risus will remain free!
• Open call for stick figure artists.
  
• Open call for freelance work to write 10 page adventures and approx. 64 page world books. 
• The International Order of Risus will remain intact and continue to move forward. 
• More stuff to come after the KS fulfillment. 

I have been thinking about this a lot since I found out about it and honestly and I am really excited about this change. I think it is going to bring great things to Risus and the related community. One of the most unique things about Risus is it is really a community and that community has been continuously creating content  and going on Risus powered adventures. Now, it looks like Risus is going to a renewed focus and support from Dave and Big Dice Games. 

I cannot wait for what the future holds for Risus. 

If you are interested in freelance opportunities, please feel free to email dave at risusrpg dot com. 

Update 08/18/2021

So, this post has generated some better insight on the situation and I was given a link to a blog post that gives a better explanation on S. John Ross's state of mind and reasoning why he put Risus up for sale. Basically, outside of his health and financial issues, it seems to come down to the ye olde argument regarding high trust vs. low trust games and how S. John Ross thinks there is no room for his low trust style and games in today's gaming community. I think he is wrong, as the revitalization of DIY style of gaming, OSR, FKR, and other such movements show a swing in the other direction. The above link has screenshots from S. John Ross's twitter account and the like. It is an interesting read and provides powerful insight.